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EU, Zambia to sign financing agreement

The European Union (EU) and the Ministry of Agriculture will this year sign a financing agreement amounting to €87 million to support the agriculture sector under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) 2014-20 national indicative programme. Ministry of Finance national authorising officer-agriculture sector Kondwani Gondwe said the financing agreement is expected to be signed by December this year while the implementation of the project will be next year. Mr Gondwe said a bigger portion of the funding will go towards financing for small-scale farmers with concessional loans that will be given through commercial banks. “Majority of small-scale farmers cannot access funding as they are considered to be high risk by commercial banks,” he said in an interview last week. He said about €10 million will go towards aquaculture development, while €12.5 million will be spent on promoting climate change resilience in the country. Mr Gondwe said part of the funding will go towards promoting irrigation farming among small-scale farmers.